Mozart: Duet for violin & viola
Michael Haydn, the brother of Josef, being sick and incapable of finishing a commission by his employer, appealed to his good friend Mozart to take over the completion of two more duets, number 5 and 6 of set of six.
Thus came to life two magnificent works using the viola, an instrument seldom heard in such a position of equality with the violin.
Luckily, today this situation has already slowly started to change, due to the fact that there are more and more of excellent viola players, which was certainly not the case 40 years ago !
These two pieces, compared with the rest of the program, give the feeling of a sudden big step forward, and, by the way, starting to rehearse it, and having first begun with the other pieces, after the first page of the Mozart, Marie-Luce and myself, without a word both stopped, and looking at each other in surprise, as if we had never before heard anything from Mozart (!!) we both exclamed: « Gosh ! how modern it sounds ! ».
Duet 1
Allegro, Adagio, Rondeau (Allegro)
Duet 2
Adagio-Allegro, Andante cantabile, Thema con variazioni (Andante grazioso)
Baroque violin: Marie-Luce Gillet
Baroque viola: Jean-Claude Féret
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18th century : one century of violin music 3
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Mozart : Duo n° 1
Mozart : Duo n° 2
